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Corn planting continues at exceptional rate

Farmers in the top 18 corn-producing states have once again taken advantage of the drier weather, according to the USDA’s Crop Progress report released Tuesday afternoon. With 17 percent of corn now in the ground, farmers more than doubled their corn planting progress for the second week in the row. Their exceptional pace also makes 2012 the third-fastest since 1985, just slightly behind this same week in 2004 (20 percent) and 2010 (19 percent).

Compared to last year, when farmers struggled against the weather, the 2012 corn-planting pace is well ahead of schedule. Last year's pace didn't exceed a national average of 17 percent until mid-May.

Tennessee now leads the states in progress, with 80 percent of corn in the ground. This is an increase of 34 percentage points from their progress reported last week, the largest increase of all the states. Kentucky also made notable gains, with 59 percent of corn planted compared to 32 percent last week.

Ohio reported 10 percent of the corn planted. In 2011, the state was plagued by overwhelming rain and didn’t report more than 10 percent of its corn in ground until late May. This year, Ohio has had little trouble with corn planting. Click here to see how your quickly your state is progressing or check out the map below: